Anyone else cook for a living?

I am hoping to have my surgery in March. I was wondering if anyone else works in a kitchen or around food all day? Did you have to switch jobs after your surgery? How soon after your surgery did you go back to work? How did you manage to be around all the food with your diets? Where I work we have to taste everything that we cook, plus taste what other people and the chef cook so that we can reproduce it. Am I going to have to find a new job after my surgery?

Tasting everything may be a problem.  How many calories does that add up to in a day?  I mean, are there lots of things you have to taste or just a couple things each day?  Are some of the things you need to taste really high in sugar?

A friend of mine is a chef and had the DS because of the reasons you stated. She did not want the surgery to interfere with her job.

Hi. The doctor recomend me to change  careers :( because she told me some food can cause me dummping syndrome , for more minimal the portion to try, I can get sick after that. Other thing you need to considerate if you need to carry a lots of things in the kitchen ( bowls, batter, bag of potatoes etc) remember you can allow only to carry 10 pound  of weight for some period of time. I will need to apply for a  second career after my operation. Good luck.

With having the tasting requirement, I don't see how you can continue. I do not cook for a living, but I had to break myself of tasting while cooking after surgery. I was on full liquids for three weeks.
I learned to cook by smell and what I know foods taste like. That worked for me because I am only cooking for the family.
I taste test a bit now but only slightly.
Is there any way you can get out of tasting?

I'm thinking about the issue of having to taste things some more, and if there are other people there that can taste things, is it absolutely necessary for you to taste everything, too?  What if you were diabetic, would you have to taste the sugary desserts?  Or what if you were allergic to dairy products, would you have to taste things made with milk or cheese?  What if your religion required you to eat Kosher or forbid you to eat pork?  It just seems like they could/would make accommodations if needed.

Kelly, I've always been infatuated with your thought processes. I think you are gifted. 

I also worked in a kitchen. When I was new after surgery, I would have others taste for me. Later on, (after 6 months or so) I was able to try the different things, but I also slowly stopped losing weight when I began tasting. So, I wouldn't suggest it, if your kitchen serves as unhealthy of foods as mine did.

Now, I am back to losing weight and no longer work in the kitchen. I would suggest finding a restaurant or spa kitchen you could work in that serves healthier foods, or having someone else try the foods for you. Also, you could even go into being a personal chef, and cooking health foods. There is a big market for healthy eating now, so there could still be some options for you. It's tough, but when you're passionate about cooking, you should try to find some way to be able to incorporate that into your new, healthy life.  

A lot of times I will be the only one in the kitchen when it comes time to taste, plus every one's taste buds are different. I wouldn't want to put out something that wasn't up to my standards. You can explain to someone how something in suppose to taste but unless you are the one doing the tasting it's hard to rely on someone else's taste. I work in  a place that does an all you can eat buffet plus banquets so the food isn't the healthiest in the world. As far as kosher and having allergies and stuff, it's easier for the boss to understand that then it is for him to understand a good cook that he knows what they are capable of doing suddenly not being able to do it anymore. And I don't know if he will put up with it for 6 months or more.

Just a FYI, I dont know if your aware that out taste buds can become messed up for quite some time post op.  I do not think you should trust your tasting for flavor for a while anyway. Someone else should be your taste tester for a while to make sure your not having distorted senses.   It defies common sense, nothing happened to our mouths, but it is true.   Operations on our stomach messes with our buds.   I am over 4 months post op and things dont taste the same as they did pre op (even water)